Belstone - South Zeal - Sticklepath.
When we got out of the cars at Belstone it was blowing a gale so rain coats and hats donned we set off down to the river Taw. Following the left hand path we soon found ourselves on a nice little path following the river and NO wind, Lovely. On, On following Hash sawdust to find the first footbridge to cross the river to find the next one to cross back. Not so easy, it was hidden in the trees, so we soon found ourselves meeting the Belstone road so - Check Back. This bridge has the words from the Ring of Bright Water engraved on the hand rail. Lovely!
Then a fork in the path lead us up and more up which was a bit of a surprise, I hadn’t looked at the map closely enough to notice how close together the contour lines were. (Sorry Brenda). So up, up, up and once we were up it was down, down, down to Ford Farm. Beautifully restored buildings, neat and tidy yard. Not much farming goes on here me thinks.
Reaching South Zeal we turned left onto the old A30 for the last half mile to Sticklepath. The Taw River was nice but surprisingly busy, we waited a long time to be fed. Some wanted their usual post lunch nap but no we had to walk back on the other side of the river.
A bit of road then a nice wide path but the those pesky contours again led us up to Skaigh, sounds quite Scottish, then along a lovely flat path above the river, it was probably a leat at one time and so finally back to the Green where we were met by the wind again.
Stella